PASSAGEIII
Standard English refers to the authoritative and correct
usage of the language, the mediumof expression for government
and education. Its opposite is a dialectal variant of the language,
that is, accepted and recognized words, expressions and
structures peculiar to a smaller group of language users who are
generally set apart from standard usage by cultural group or geographical region. For example, Nigerian,American, Irish and
British English differ from one another in many respects and
each is identifiable, yet in every case the standard variety
approaches a single and hypothetical classification known as
international English. As one moves towards informality and
away from the observance of strict rules, emphasis falls on the
differences between dialects. In addition to American English
being distinguishable from British English, it is also true that
British English is not uniform within the United Kingdom. The
level of formality is determined by education and aspiration,
while dialects vary from region to region.
[The Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, IIe-Ife: The use of English Text (1980)]
The author refers to standard English as
One characteristic of a dialect as mentioned in the passage is
Stress your limit with past questions and answers